COLLECTIONS

Darü'l-Elhan Collections

Ankara State Conservatory Collections

Turkish Radio and Television Association (TRT) Collections

Collections by the Ministry of Culture

Darü'l-Elhan Collections

First collection: August 1926, in Adana, Gaziantep, Urfa, Nigde, Kayseri and Sivas provinces. 250 pieces were collected.

Second Collection: 1927, in Konya, Eregli, Karaman, Alasehir, Manisa, Ödemis and Aydin. 250 pieces were collected.

Third collection: 1928, in Kastamonu, Inebolu, Çankiri, Ankara, Eskisehir, Kütahya and Bursa. Nearly 200 pieces were collected.

Fourth collection: 1929, in Trabzon, Rize, Gümüshane, Erzurum, Erzincan, Bayburt, Giresun and Sinop provinces. Nearly 300 pieces were collected.

Following these fieldwork efforts, there was a long silent period, which continued until the arrival of the famous Hungarian composer Bela Bartok in Turkey in 1936. Invited by the Ankara Halk Evi, Bela Bartok made a significant contribution to Turkish folk music with his collections in southern Anatolia. (See Adnan Saygun, "Bartok in Turkey.)

During the same period, the German composer Paul Hindemith, invited to help with the founding of the Ankara State Conservatory, wrote a report on folk music collection fieldwork. A directorate of Archives was created in the Ankara State Conservatory, which was founded the same year, and recruiting of collection staff began. Though many experts and composers participated in this work, Halil Bedi Yönetken and Muzaffer Sarisözen were present during all the fieldwork. Created to carry out the most comprehensive collections of Turkish folk music ever made, this institution worked ceaselessly for seventeen years.

Ankara State Conservatory Collections

First collection: 1937, in Sivas, Elazig, Erzincan, Erzurum, Gümüshane, Trabzon and Rize provinces. 588 pieces were collected.

Second Collection: 1938, by two separate teams. The first team worked in Kütahya, Afyon, Denizli, Aydin, Izmir, Manisa and Balikesir provinces and collected 604 pieces. The second team worked in Malatya, Diyarbakir, Urfa, Gaziantep, Maras and Adana, and collected 491 pieces.

Third Collection: 1939, in Çorum province. 241 pieces were collected.

Fourth Collection: 1940, in Konya province. 512 pieces were collected.

Fifth Collection: 1941, in Kayseri, Nigde, Maras and Seyhan. 412 pieces were collected.

Sixth Collection: 1942, in Isparta, Burdur, Antalya and Mugla provinces. 426 pieces were collected.

Seventh Collection: 1943, in Tokat, Amasya, Samsun, Ordu, Giresun and Trabzon provinces. 772 pieces were collected.

Eighth Collection: 1944, in Elazig, Tunceli, Bingöl and Mus provinces. 293 pieces were collected.

Ninth Collection: 1945, in Ankara, Çankiri, Yozgat and Kirsehir provinces. 432 pieces were collected.

Tenth Collection: 1946, in Antakya and Mersin provinces. 134 pieces were collected.

Eleventh Collection: 1947, in Edirne, Çanakkale, Kirklareli, Tekirdag and Bursa provinces. 492 pieces were collected.

Twelfth Collection: 1948, in Bolu, Kastamonu, Sinop and Zonguldak provinces. 318 pieces were collected.

Thirteenth Collection: 1949, in Eskisehir and Bilecik provinces. 249 pieces were collected.

Fourteenth Collection: 1950, in Agri, Van, Kars and Artvin provinces. 382 pieces were collected.

Fifteenth Collection: 1951, Istanbul and Kocaeli provinces. 115 pieces were collected.

Sixteenth Collection: 1952, in Bitlis, Siirt, Mardin and Hakkari. 200 pieces were collected.

Seventeenth Collection: 1952, in Izmir. 40 pieces were collected.

Eighteenth Collection: 1954, made among immigrants from Central Asia. 45 pieces were collected.

Turkish Radio and Television Association (TRT) Collections

1961, under the auspices of Ankara Radio, in Erzurum, Van, Hakkari, Erzincan, Diyarbakir, Elazig, Adana, Bitlis, Siirt, Mus and Bingöl provinces. 800 pieces were collected.

1967, by different teams in various provinces, under the name of TRT 1 Folklore Collections; in Gaziantep, Burdur, Van, Erzincan, Diyarbakir, Izmir, Trabzon, Rize and Balikesir. 1738 pieces were collected.

1971, under the auspices of TRT, in the environs of Erzurum and Kars. Nearly 250 pieces were collected.

Besides these, regional artists invited to the TRT studios at different times also collected a great many pieces.

Collections by the Ministry of Culture

The Department of National Folklore Research (MIFAD) (now called Hagem), founded in 1966 by the Ministry of Culture, carried out extensive collection fieldwork in 57 provinces of Turkey, and brought nearly 4000 pieces into its archive.